American composer and conductor.

Born on 20 December 1871 in Somerville (Massachusetts), and passed away on 6 September 1937 in New York (United States). His parents were Henry Hadley, a music teacher, and Martha Conant, a pianist and contralto. His brother was the cellist Arthur Hadley. He began studying piano, violin and conducting with his father. After completing his education under Stephen Emery and George Chadwick, in 1889 he gave his first concerts in his hometown. He travelled to Europe in 1894, where he studied counterpoint with Eusebius Mandyczewski. Upon returning, he presented his first symphony, "Youth and Life" (1897) and later on, "The Four Seasons". He also taught at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Garden City, from 1895 to 1902. In 1901 he won the Paderewski Prize for his second symphony.

Hadley returned to Europe in 1905, where he met Richard Strauss, and studied composition with Ludwig Thuille. From 1907 to 1909, he conducted the orchestra of the Mainz Staatstheater in Germany and premiered his "Angelus" (1907). While working as conductor of the Seattle Symphony (1909-1911) and of the San Francisco Symphony (1911-1915), he composed the one-act opera "Safié" (1909) and musical play "The Atonement of Pan" (1912). In the late 1910s he married the singer Inez Barbour, for whom he wrote approximately 200 songs. Among other musical pursuits, he conducted the annual summer concerts at New York's Lewisohn Stadium (1918-1926) and composed pieces like "Othello" (1919). Hadley's renown continued to grow in his capacity as associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic, from 1920 to 1927 and founder of the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra. In the early 1920s, he witnessed the premiere of his opera "Cleopatra's Night" (1918) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and of his oratorio "Resurgam" (1922). He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1924, and received an honorary doctorate from Tufts College in 1925. When invited to Argentina in 1927, Hadley conducted Manuel de Falla's "El amor brujo", which he took to Japan in 1930. His concern for the welfare of American composers led him to found the National Association for American Composers and Conductors (1933) and the Berskhire Symphonic Music Festival (1934), now known as Tanglewood. He ventured into the new world of radio, premiering his "A Night in Old Paris" on NBS, and cinema, composing the soundtrack for Alan Crosland's film "When a Man Loves" (1926).

El archivo personal de Henry Hadley se conserva en la sección de música de la New York Public Library. Contiene: correspondencia, contratos, libretos y programas, reseñas, registros financieros, películas, fotografías, partituras de otros compositores y documentación de la National Association for American Composers and Conductors.